Meeting regularly with women and carefully listening to them would be a good start

A common refrain that was repeated in a variety of ways during a recent conference in Rome on women and sexual abuse was that Church authorities continue not to listen.

The authorities, of course, are almost all men. And for far too long they have not been good at listening — really listening — to abuse victims. But they’ve been even worse at listening to women, including those who have been abused.

“I helped the victims write out their accusations and I said, ‘Let’s send them to all the offices of the Vatican’... So we sent them to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Secretariat of State, all of them,” said Rocio Figueroa, who told people attending the event sponsored by “Voices of Faith” how she and many other women were abused by the top leaders in a conservative lay movement (Solidacio), including by its now disgraced Peruvian founder.

What was the Vatican’s response to Figueroa’s letters reporting the abuse? “Not one answer,” she said.

Not a single office at the heart of the Catholic Church had the decency to even acknowledge receipt of the denunciations.

This sort of silent treatment was particularly poignant given that Figueroa herself had been an official at another major Vatican office.

As head of the women’s section of the now-defunct Pontifical Council for the Laity from 2003-2008, she was publicly recognized by the council’s president, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, as “brilliant and professional.”

And, yet, when it came to her testimony against a powerful founder and leader of a lay movement in the Church, the Vatican would not believe her.

'They did not believe the women'

Why should anyone be surprised?

Since the very beginnings of the Christianity, the male leaders of the faith community have been slow to believe women.

You can read it in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection.

“And they (the women) returned from the tomb and told all this to the Eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. And the other women with them also told the apostles, but this story of theirs seemed pure nonsense, and they did not believe them,” we read in Luke’s version (Lk 24: 6-11).

Matthew’s account is similar: “Having risen in the morning on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary of Magdala from whom he had cast out seven devils. She then went to those who had been his companions, and who were mourning and in tears, and told them. But they did not believe her when they heard her say that he was alive and that she had seen him” (Mk 16: 9-11).

Women were the first to understand and proclaim the truth. But more than 2,000 years later so many of the men who hold ecclesial authority continue to doubt them.

They have been slow to believe women at nearly every major juncture in the Church’s history. And they have excluded women — at least half of the faith community — from taking part in every important decision about the Church’s life and order.

Men need to include the other half of the Church

What can be done?

“Voices of Faith” offers these three concrete suggestions that can be taken by the organizing committee of next February’s meeting in Rome between Pope Francis and the presidents of world’s bishops’ conferences:

1. A complete list of participants, their credentials and the agenda of the meeting should be made public at least six weeks prior to the beginning of the meeting.

2. All proceedings and voting on any documents during the meeting should be made public in order to facilitate transparency.

3. Diverse voices of women survivors and advocates should be invited to participate and be heard at this meeting. Therefore a dedicated time allocation should be given for women's voices… (they) are crucial to any credible efforts to stop and prevent abuse.

These three steps, which would be normal in most other organizations, sound daring when applied to the Catholic Church.

Their implementation would demand boldness from the organizers of the Vatican’s abuse summit and, more importantly, permission from the pope. Only he could make this happen.

And, regarding that third point, women’s voices are crucial not just for the credibility of the Church’s anti-abuse efforts. Their voices are crucial for all levels of decision-making.

And that is why the women involved with “Voices of Faith” are not limiting their efforts to the February summit.

The organization’s founder and managing director, Chantal Götz, announced at the Nov. 27 event that the group will be launching a global digital campaign next January that will “focus on un-silencing women and highlighting that progress will never be achieved if we remain silent.”

“This campaign will be a catalyst for change; a movement that becomes too loud to ignore,” she said.

“It will uncover stories from all over the world, fighting for the same thing as we are today in this room, but on a global level united in one voice. Women have a role to play in leadership for the future of our Church, for its survival and for our daughters. The time for change is now,” Götz concluded.

Other courageous steps that can be taken

This is not an isolated view.

Another high-profile Catholic woman recently made a different concrete suggestion that would enhance “the presence of women in ecclesial bodies at all levels, even in positions of responsibility,” as recommended by the recent assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

Phyllis Zagano, a member of the Vatican’s Study Commission on the Women’s Diaconate that was established in August 2016, proposed the novel idea of “putting women in charge of a few dioceses.”

Many people probably saw this as radical and controversial. After all, women cannot be priests, let alone bishops.

But in an article in the National Catholic Reporter, Zagano argued that this could be done in a way that would allow for “the participation of women in ecclesial decision-making processes (while) respecting the role of the ordained ministry,” as the Synod assembly called for.

She said her idea would “give dioceses (and the church universal) the benefit and inspiration of a woman caretaker while episcopal nominations and paperwork float around the Vatican.”

Zagano gave convincing reasons why this could happen in full compliance with the Church’s laws and sacramental structure.

She cited an example of a U.S. diocese, currently without a bishop, where a layman has been made “delegate for administrative affairs.” This non-ordained man manages the day-to-day affairs and reports directly to the Rome-appointed “diocesan administrator,” a bishop in a neighboring diocese.

What will it take for men in the Church — especially the bishops — to listen seriously and attentively to women, and accept the help and advice that women are offering?

“The synod supported women in leadership, but recognized such could only ‘be implemented through a work of courageous cultural conversion and change in daily pastoral practice,’” Zagano pointed out in her article.

“Courage. Maybe that’s what the Church needs,” she said.

And, to that, one can only say: “Amen!”

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